Skip to content
  • Science
  • Politics
  • Justice & Health
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Clean Energy
  • ICN Local
  • Projects
  • About Us
Inside Climate News
Pulitzer Prize-winning, nonpartisan reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet.
Donate
Trump 2.0: The Reckoning
Inside Climate News
Donate

Search

  • Science
  • Politics
  • Justice & Health
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Clean Energy
  • ICN Local
  • Projects
  • About Us
  • Newsletters
  • ICN Sunday Morning
  • Contact Us

Topics

  • A.I. & Data Centers
  • Activism
  • Arctic
  • Biodiversity & Conservation
  • Business & Finance
  • Climate Law & Liability
  • Climate Treaties
  • Denial & Misinformation
  • Environment & Health
  • Extreme Weather
  • Food & Agriculture
  • Fracking
  • Nuclear
  • Pipelines
  • Plastics
  • Regulation
  • Super-Pollutants
  • Water/Drought
  • Wildfires

Information

  • About
  • Job Openings
  • Reporting Network
  • Whistleblowers
  • Memberships
  • Ways to Give
  • Fellows & Fellowships

Publications

  • E-Books
  • Documents

Katie Surma

Reporter, Pittsburgh

Katie Surma is a reporter at Inside Climate News covering the rights of nature movement and international environmental justice. Her work has a strong focus on the intersection of human rights and the environment. Before joining ICN, she practiced law, specializing in commercial litigation. Her journalism work has been recognized by the Overseas Press Club, the Society of International Journalists, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and others. Katie has a master’s degree in investigative journalism from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, an LLM in international rule of law and security from ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, a J.D. from Duquesne University, and was a History of Art and Architecture major at the University of Pittsburgh. Katie lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
  • @katiesurma.bsky.social
  • @Katie_Surma
  • [email protected]
Silvana Nihua, a member of the Kiwaro community and former OWAP president, sits near a sacred waterfall in a Waorani community's territory, Pastaza, Ecuadorian Amazon. Credit: Nico Kingman/Amazon Frontlines

Who Has the Right to Decide What Happens on Indigenous Lands?

By Katie Surma

Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari receives the Goldman Environmental Prize for her decades-long fight to protect the Marañón River in Peru. Credit: Goldman Environmental Prize

Rights of Nature Defender Wins Goldman Prize for Precedent-Setting Work Protecting an Imperiled River

By Katie Surma

Sean Donahue, nominee to lead the EPA’s Office of General Counsel, speaks to a Senate committee during his confirmation hearing on March 26. Credit: Senate Environment and Public Works Committee

Trump’s Nominee for EPA’s Top Lawyer Advances Despite Scant Legal Qualifications

By Katie Surma

People attend the burial of indigenous environmental activist Quinto Inuma Alvarado, leader of the Kichwa community in remote Peru, on Dec. 2, 2023. Credit: Christian Sierra/AFP via Getty Images

Rural Human Rights Defenders Face Serious and Growing Risks, UN Report Reveals

By Katie Surma

A group of Adélie penguins hop around on a beach of Paulet Island on the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Credit: Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images

What Are the Rights of Nature?

By Katie Surma

China Is Reshaping Global Development. Is That Good for the Planet?

By Katie Surma

Carola Rackete looks into the Majdanpek copper mine in East Serbia. The mine, run by the Chinese company Zijin, has been linked to large scale pollution, river alteration and deficient environmental impact studies. Credit: Courtesy of Carola Rackete

The European Politician Bringing Nature Into the Halls of Power

By Katie Surma

Conta, a member of the Tagaeri and Baihuaeri Waorani Indigenous groups, appears before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights via pre recorded video on Aug. 23, 2022. Credit: Courtesy of the Inter American Court of Human Rights

Landmark Ruling on Uncontacted Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Strikes at Oil Industry

By Katie Surma

Judge Tom Goldtooth addresses the 6th International Rights of Nature Tribunal on Feb. 28 in Toronto, Canada. Goldtooth noted that people around the world are starting to reevaluate colonial legal systems. Credit: Courtesy of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature

The Rights of Nature Become a Rallying Point Against an Ascendant Mining Industry

By Katie Surma

The Kayenta solar farm is seen on June 23, 2024 in Kayenta, Ariz. Credit: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Companies Tell Congressional Committee That Renewable Energy Is Needed to Keep Up With Demand

By Katie Surma

People do chores near the Rancheria River, which runs adjacent to the Cerrejon coal mine in Colombia. The Swiss mining giant Glencore has filed multiple ISDS claims against Colombia related to its investment in the mine. Credit: Lis Mary Machado/Anadolu via Getty Images

Biden Administration Reaches Deal Limiting Controversial Protections for Multinational Corporations

By Katie Surma, Nicholas Kusnetz

Fish and sharks swim around North Seymour Island in Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands on March 8, 2024. Credit: Ernesto Benavides/AFP via Getty Images

A Court Says Coastal Marine Ecosystems Have Intrinsic Value—and Legal Rights

By Katie Surma

Shop vendors protest a foreign consortium’s sharp increase in water rates in Cochabamba, Bolivia, on Feb. 5, 2000. The city’s water services were privatized in the late 1990s with encouragement from the World Bank. Credit: Gonzalo Espinoza/AFP via Getty Images

Nations Are Exiting a Secretive System That Protects Corporations. One Country’s Story Shows How Hard That Can Be

By Katie Surma, Nicholas Kusnetz

A view of the small Arctic town of Narsaq in southern Greenland, where Greenland Minerals arrived in 2007. Credit: Martin Zwick/REDA/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

How to Buy a Piece of a Lawsuit and Impoverish a Country

By Katie Surma, Nicholas Kusnetz

A view of the Snohomish River Estuary near Everett, Wash. Credit: Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images

A River in Washington State Now Has Enforceable Legal Rights

By Katie Surma

An Adelie penguin is seen on Horseshoe Island in Antarctica on Feb. 14. Credit: Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

Antarctica’s Fate Will Impact the World. Is It Time to Give The Region a Voice at Climate Talks?

By Katie Surma

Firefighters arrive to extinguish a wildfire on Sept. 24 in Concepcion, Bolivia. Credit: Rodrigo Urzagasti/AFP via Getty Images

Bolivia Has National Rights of Nature Laws. Why Haven’t They Been Enforced?

By Katie Surma

Honduras Próspera construyó un edificio de 14 pisos de usos mixtos al pie de una ladera anteriormente arbolada cerca de Crawfish Rock, un pueblo de pescadores de unos cientos de personas en la isla de Roatán. Crédito: Nicholas Kusnetz/Inside Climate News

En Honduras, los Libertarios y las Demandas Judiciales Podrían Quebrar el País

By Nicholas Kusnetz, Katie Surma

Posts pagination

Prev 1 2 3 … 8 Next

Newsletters

We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Every day or once a week, our original stories and digest of the web's top headlines deliver the full story, for free.

Keep Environmental Journalism Alive

ICN provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going.

Donate Now
Inside Climate News
  • Science
  • Politics
  • Justice & Health
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Clean Energy
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Whistleblowers
  • Privacy Policy
  • Charity Navigator
Inside Climate News uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept this policy. Learn More